AT&T (NYSE:T) Shares Up 0.5%

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) shares traded up 0.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $16.23 and last traded at $16.20. 7,314,483 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 38,163,711 shares. The stock had previously closed at $16.12.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on T shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of AT&T from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on AT&T from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Oppenheimer upgraded AT&T from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of AT&T from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AT&T from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AT&T has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.68.

AT&T Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average is $17.00 and its 200 day moving average is $16.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $118.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.57.

AT&T (NYSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.44 billion. AT&T had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 15.39%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that AT&T Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AT&T Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.2775 dividend. This represents a $1.11 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. AT&T’s payout ratio is 56.63%.

Institutional Trading of AT&T

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AT&T by 85,003.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 76,836,936 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,414,568,000 after acquiring an additional 76,746,649 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of AT&T during the 4th quarter worth $1,229,499,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in AT&T by 185.6% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,613,513 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $790,301,000 after purchasing an additional 34,189,954 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in AT&T by 130.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,515,546 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $863,884,000 after purchasing an additional 32,558,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in AT&T by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 109,639,428 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,018,462,000 after purchasing an additional 29,769,976 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.10% of the company’s stock.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc provides telecommunications and technology services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Communications and Latin America. The Communications segment offers wireless voice and data communications services; and sells handsets, wireless data cards, wireless computing devices, carrying cases/protective covers, and wireless chargers through its own company-owned stores, agents, and third-party retail stores.